Bridge city Tools at Lee Valley

[Mario Turcot]

Lee Valley is now a distributor for Bridge City Tools.

I jumped on the occasion to get a KerfMaker. Fit prefectly in an apron pocket  [smile]

P.S. Most of the BC tools are not yet available.

Here a direct link to Bridge City Tools. Change country to US if you want to get the US prices  [wink]

[attachimg=1]

 

[egmiii]

I'm curious how much of the quality remains now that they are made in China. While the design may remain the same, I can't imagine the fit and finish is on par with the US made models. The machining process for many of his tools were very complex. Plenty of places to introduce shortcuts in the manufacturing. Until current owners of US made tools confirm the Chinese versions are acceptable, I'll continue to purchase from Woodpeckers, Starrett, etc.

 

[HarveyWildes]

I'm curious how much of the quality remains now that they are made in China...

Any observations on the quality, [member=66597]Mario Turcot[/member] ?  I've been tempted by the KerfMaker before, and found your post tempting.

I'm hoping that the quality will stay high since Bridge City is now associated with the Harvey name.

 

[ChuckM]

When the kerf maker came out (about a decade ago), shop-made versions of it were shared, made and copied by countless hobbyists. I still have two different versions of it.

I wonder if Harvey would bring this back:https://www.finewoodworking.com/2005/10/25/wheel-style-marking-gauge-review1

I would be very surprised and somewhat disappointed if the Harvey goes cheap on the quality when John is still associated with it in design & QA.

 

[Mario Turcot]

[member=61231]HarveyWildes[/member]

Any observations on the quality, [member=66597]Mario Turcot[/member] ?  I've been tempted by the KerfMaker before, and found your post tempting.

This is the first Bridge City tool i own so comparing is kind of hard. What I can say is the KerfMaker is all made of aluminium with no sharp edges. The two buttons seems to be alu as well but might be of plastic, hard to tell unless I use a knife to try dent them  [eek]. However they are contained into the tool securing them. The tracks have a very tight tolerance making the tool going in and out pretty straight. If you extend the bottom part to the end the tool (light & dark gray) will remain straight. But the upper (orange) part can go out of it's track. that's the nature of the tool design and have nothing to do with the quality. I don't see any problem with that anyways.

Here is a picture of what I'm explaining
[attachimg=1]

To answer your question. I really like the quality. To me it's pretty on par with the WP tools I have.

When I first knew about KerfMaker, I watched 4 or 5 videos of people making their own. What's funny about that is they never use it on their following videos.  [huh]

 

[Bob D.]

"What's funny about that is they never use it on their following videos."

Maybe that should have been a clue that it is better suited to collecting dust.

Having said that I have one which does just that most of the time. It does work
and though does come in handy at times.

But I could certainly live without it.

 

[Mario Turcot]

"What's funny about that is they never use it on their following videos."

Maybe that should have been a clue that it is better suited to collecting dust.

Having said that I have one which does just that most of the time. It does work
and though does come in handy at times.

But I could certainly live without it.

What I meant is using a DIY tool. Most youtuber that do that, they do it for the video itself. To me I take it as a suggestion to make my own. Not seeing them using it lead me to think (I might be wrong) that their DIY tools have flaw so I'm not attracted to make my own.

It's like a table saw sled, Nick Ferry did a video about his own design sled. On subsequent videos and on several I watched he is using it.

 

[Mario Turcot]

Interesting Richard, looks like yours have a hard stop limiting the travel of the bottom part. If you look at the wheels on mine both wheels can travel from the left to right through the full window.

Oops! your post disappeared  [eek]